Committee to decide Browns’ starter on Tuesday

Posted by Mike Florio on August 15, 2014, 4:47 PM EDT

AP

On Monday night, Browns quarterbacks Brian Hoyer and Johnny Manziel will share first-team reps equally. The winner starts Week One against the Steelers. The loser is guaranteed to walk upright and without a limp on the morning of September 8.

Coach Mike Pettine confirmed to reporters on Friday the the “target date” for picking a starter is Tuesday, baring “something unforeseen.” And the decision won’t be made solely by Pettine.

“It’ll be a group of us,” Pettine said. “It’ll be [quarterbacks coach] Dowell [Loggains], [offensive coordinator] Kyle [Shanahan]. We might involve [General Manager] Ray [Farmer] just to kind of listen and observe. There might be another guy or two in there.”

Oh, there will be another guy in there. And while he may not state a preference between Hoyer or Manziel, the owner of the team — Jimmy Haslam — won’t need to. He will have made his preference known through advance discussions with Pettine, Farmer, and possibly others.

That’s one of the privileges of being the Boss. The Boss doesn’t have to say what he wants. The people who spend time with the Boss know.

Pettine naturally downplayed the possibility of Haslam influencing the decision. Again, one of the privileges of being the Boss is not having to play the “Boss” card. They’ll know who Haslam prefers; they probably already do. And if they don’t do what they think he wants, they’d better hope it works.

Of course, they’ll always have a chance to change it. While the leash won’t be a short one, Pettine made it clear that the starter will be wearing one.

“I don’t want whoever the starter is to feel like, ‘Oh, if I make one mistake I’m out.’” Pettine said. “I also don’t want him to feel like, ‘Hey, I’ve achieved something. This is my team for the year.’”

It will be the starter’s team for at least a week. If he can survive Pittsburgh.

By survive do you mean be able to withstand the ferocious Pittsburgh defense that was 25th in sacks and 29th in interceptions last season? I think whoever is at QB will do fine and if Pittsburgh wins it won’t be because of their terrifying defense.

“If there was a mount rushmore of NFL QBs it would be: Montana, Manning, Marino, Johnny Football.”
——
That was truly hilarious! If there was a mount rushmore of NFL QBs it would be Montana, Manning, I’d go with Brady instead of Marino, and Unitas would be up there too.

Johnny Football would be lucky to even get a campsite in the nearest campground to that mount rushmore. Warren Moon would be a better candidate for QB Rushmore!

We’ll be very happy with either one. Though, it would be more entertaining to crush Johnny.

moochach says:Aug 15, 2014 5:34 PM

Manziel will be the starter we all know that. There’s only about 3 coaches in the NFL with the respect and self confidence to go against internet hype and a new owner’s childish impatience. Pettine is absolutely not one of the three.

Pettine should just admit that it’s not in any way up to him, and stop talking about it. Otherwise he’s just highlighting the fact that he took a job to be the emasculated fall guy to cover for Haslam’s ineptitude.

I love when the Steelers are under estimated. They will destroy either qb. The Steelers may only be average (I think they will be far better sweeping the division), but average beats miserable every time. It is the browns we are talking about here.

Same as the Deadskins on who deserves to play. Manziel will get the call because the owner wants him to play. Cousins is outplaying RGnoknees but the owner will fire Gruden if his poster boy doesn’t play.

mackcarrington says:Aug 15, 2014 5:46 PM

Calling Jimmy Haslam “The Boss” is an insult to the memory of George Steinbrenner.

I would like to see Ryan Shazier welcome Johnny Overated to the NFL appropriately.

benwaballs11 says:Aug 15, 2014 6:04 PM

Michael Stanley, Carl Munday, and Mike Polk, Jr. have all also been identified as committee members.

td40 says:Aug 15, 2014 6:13 PM

Let me translate this story:

The coaching staff and the people who are watching every play in practice and have the best grasp of what’s actually going on want Hoyer to start, but one of the “other couple guys” in the room will be Haslam, who doesn’t want to be embarrassed about his first big pick and will thus order that Manziel starts.

florsht says:Aug 15, 2014 6:14 PM

Opening day will be a Steelers Linebackers party with Johnny Footloose (ouch, welcome to the pros and the AFC North).

Weak coach. Owner made decision a long time ago when he drafted him. Hoyer can play AWESOME and Manziel will still be starting QB. All this is hype and attention from organization. Feel pity for them. Oh and Manziel is one immature version of Tebow. At least Tebow had class.
BROWN FANS, THAT’S YOU’RE QUE FOR THE THUMB DOWNS

Johnny Football will be smart and defer to Hoyer. After Hoyer gets the beating of his life by the Steelers, Manziel will be free from pressure to excel since it will have been established beyond all doubt that there is no offensive line in Cleveland.

The blame for no professional offensive line goes to the front office and to the coaching staff for being unable to develop any decent offensive linemen from the players on the roster.

Feel good about the qb situation Cleveland because you could be like Minnesota in that Bridgewater got retaken in the depth chart by Ponder due to bad performances and not smart enough to pick up the system.

Well let’s hope the homeless guy and Haslam overrule the idiot head coach that wants Hoyer to start.

Let me remind everyone Hoyer threw 3 INTs against the horrible Minnesota Vikings defense and was undrafted and when he left the game against Buffalo, who is awful, the Browns were down 10-0 until Weeden saved the night.

Here’s the one thing people forget about the current Cleveland Browns team (Specifically the offense). Neither guy needs to be Payton Manning for that team to win games. The Jason Campbell to Josh Gordon connection has back to back record setting games and the team looses. Bryan Hoyer plays ok for two games dinking and dunking and using his legs and the team wins (something they found out totally by accident).

The thing that they were missing with their other QB’s that they were getting with Hoyer was a SMART qb. The guy might have thrown 3 picks in Minnesota but also lead the team to 3 TD’s in that same game which mean a lot more (especially since at least 2 of those picks hit their intended receiver). Even last week both QB’s consistantly got the team to the red zone and in a real game situation the running backs probably would have been relied on to finish the job instead of forced throws.

In other other words as long as neither guy is turning the ball over and play like they did last week the team should be fine either way when games count. Now Tyler Thigpin on the other hand played like he’s never been on an NFL field in his life. You would have thought he was the 21 year old rookie and not Manziel.

td40 says:Aug 15, 2014 9:39 PM

So funny- all these people talking like the Steelers are just going to steamroll their way over the Browns or any other team… You realize this is 2014, right? No one fears the Steelers anymore. They’re old, slow, and their offense looked like crap last year. It’s over.

Jeez, I hope we don’t face have to face the Bears with their super bowl shufflin’ defense or the Redskins with their mighty “hogs” offensive line or… Oh wait, all that stuff was years ago, too.

Other teams fear the current Steelers about as much as they feared the mid/late 80s Steelers (sucked) or the Steelers for the 40 years of their existence (record setting loserdom.)

drudema says:Aug 15, 2014 10:58 PM

I feel sorry for Browns fans (and I’m a Dolphin fan. How sad is it that I feel bad for you).

Whoever they pick better be prepared to put up 40 in week 2 because that’s what it’s going to take for the W.

MikeisWise says:Aug 16, 2014 12:45 AM

It’s crazy how self important everyone involved with this franchise is now. Pettine is soaking it up and loving it. Center of attention. ESPN cameras at every practice. Just keep feeding them that “undecided” crap, and they’ll keep coming.

Sadly, just a few more weeks before everyone remembers you’re the Browns.

Sounds like a coach above his head to me. I don’t care if you get opinions from other people, but you don’t make it a group decision. One guy is in charge, that guy has to make the call. Period. If you make the wrong call, you recognize that and adjust. But it is still your call

It doesn’t matter. NEITHER are a starting QB in this league, and will be drafting for Famous Jameis next year in the top 5..again. In the history of the league, has ANY team drafted a qb in the first round 3 consecutive years? Smh, lames. And im from NE Ohio!